


The light that scorched the sand

by milkywaywide



Series: Circle in the desert where the mind grows [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:04:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18607873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkywaywide/pseuds/milkywaywide
Summary: He allows himself the 17th day of October, the day before, the memories and lessons learned, made tangible by the way he rolls his cigarettes and by the bags beneath his eyes.





	The light that scorched the sand

It’s the 17th day of October so Shikamaru is standing in front of a grave.

There is a lit cigarette on his lips and the smoke warms him up from the inside out. The sight of the grave also does, oddly enough.

His old teacher’s birthday is only tomorrow but tomorrow will bring his old team mates, Asuma’s old wife and his young daughter, who’s growing into a young lady with her mother’s eyes and hair and nothing else; the rest of Mirai is all him, as is Shikamaru.

And he’ll be back tomorrow with his old teammates, Asuma’s old wife and his young daughter, of course, but today he needs the loneliness. So he allows himself the 17th day of October, the day before, the memories and lessons learned, made tangible by the way he rolls his cigarettes and by the bags beneath his eyes.

"These things kill, you know?" Temari says, stealing the cigarette from his mouth and taking a long drag.

She comes out of nowhere, makes him jump even though he should have felt her presence, and Shikamaru laughs. “I guess I’m too predictable if you just got here and found me right away.”

He says this with his eyes on his cigarette, that’s currently dangling from her lips, or maybe his eyes are really on her lips and he’s just using the stolen cigarette as an excuse to stare at them. Either way, “brought you a gift,” she says, pulling out a bottle of whatever-the-hell-that-is from god-knows-where, “drinking in the cemetery might come off as disrespectful but I’m sure he won’t mind.”

So they do. They sit in front of Asuma’s grave, they drink that nasty, foul, liquor straight from the bottle and they smoke till the sun comes up from behind the trees and they are too drunk to do anything responsible for the rest of the day.

“He’d be proud of us right now,” Shikamaru then says, hazy eyes fixed on the pink sky, stretching and laying on his back.

Temari agrees.

He then pulls her down with him and, in spite of the cold, she smells like sweat and he finds himself holding back on the impulse to stick out his tongue and taste the salt on the skin of her neck just to see the hairs on her arm go up and her cheeks go pink.

He briefly wonders if doing this this could count as punishment, considering she didn’t allow him the time to be alone with his old teacher, thinking of the past and caught in his old ways, but he finds he’s not really bothered by it.

He finds even his loneliness can be more enjoyable if shared with her.

**Author's Note:**

> Title makes no sense but it's from Sun in Your Eyes by Grizzly Bear and this is technically speaking my March piece, which is nearly two months late but at least it exists now so that’s cool. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this! <3


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